


We're Both Changed

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed's brain damage, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Lee cares about Ed, the Tetch virus changed Lee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 17:55:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12347664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Lee learned quite a lot from being infected with the Tetch virus, she learned that not everybody in Gotham is born evil, the city just happens to beat people down until they turn into something dark.





	1. Chapter 1

There is something almost genuinely endearing about Ed. Lee would be lying if she said she hadn’t found Ed rather sweet and adorable back when they had worked together at the GCPD. She had found his awkward demeanor and genuine kindness to be quite lovely. She did feel a lingering guilt that she had turned a blind eye when the world ate away at that naïve sweetness and forced him into a sort of darkness, she like everybody else had reacted like it was a shock, like he was a monster the entire time. She knew the truth. She knew that now.

After infecting herself with the Tetch virus she had learned many things about herself, even before infecting herself thoughts of violent homicide had haunted her, and even scared her. There was something violent and hungry in the back of her mind and the virus had brought it out in full force, even after being forcibly cured of her affliction she still felt wrong. She felt calm yet bored, she felt like killing everybody around her and felt an overwhelming urge to care for those who needed her. Her home was in the Narrows, because that was she found where all the unwanted lived. When she had originally seen Edward Nygma in Cherry’s Fight Club, it had been a bit of a surprise, but one she had handled rather well.

She had seen him walk in looking disheveled and manic, the mania she was accustomed to after their last encounter at the GCPD, but the disheveled state felt very unlike Ed. She had watched as he talked to Cherry, using his hands far too much as he spoke, occasionally laughing, and furrowing his brow in confusion like he wasn’t all too sure what he was saying. Lee had stood with the rest of the spectators, she had sipped her drink and gone between watching the two large men in the ring fighting and watching Ed try to talk to Cherry. Eventually Ed noticed her, his eyes landed on her and he had stared.

Lee had tried to figure out what he was thinking, why he was staring at her like he was processing her existence. Finally, he pointed at her, his bandaged hand shaking. He approached her in long awkward strides as if he were unaccustomed to moving. He stopped in front of her, he stood almost too close, but this was Ed.

“You….I know…You. Mrs. Thompkins, you’re smart.”

She had tilted her head to the side, confused and intrigued by this. She clearly recalled the Riddler; she recalled the smug asshole who lurked in the darkness and laughed at her grief and threatened to sick his friend on her. This was not that man. This man shifted his weight from his right foot to his left foot then back again, this man pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and then shoved shaky fingers back through wet messy brown hair that ended up falling over his face anyway. 

It wasn’t until she had taken him somewhere quiet to talk that she had learned this was not The Riddler and this was barely Ed Nygma, not even the shy lanky young man from work. This was somebody new; with some long pauses and a few hits to his own head with a balled-up fist, Ed managed to tell her everything that had happened. He had told her about his reign as the Riddler, he told her about how Mr. Freeze had turned him into a center piece for Penguin’s new night club, he told her about his stalker who apparently had loved him since elementary school, and he told her about Oswald humiliating him. 

Normally she wouldn’t have felt bad and normally she would have turned him away or threatened him, but the virus had changed quite a few things about her. She realized that nobody in Gotham was inherently evil. Ed once upon a time had been kind and sensitive, he would talk to her and buy her coffee, he’d tell her the oddest science facts, and assist her with her work. He’d been a kind man, there had been nothing evil about him until the city and its inhabitants had gotten under his skin, had rewired him into something they could target and hate.

So, she had shown him and Grundy to her home, she had allowed the lumbering ashy skinned half-dead man to sleep on her couch, and she had shown Ed to a guest room.

She hadn’t had a single clue that she would develop feelings for the frustrated and skittish creature that was named Ed, but in no way acted like the versions of Ed she had known before.


	2. Chapter 2

As days wore on she noted and studied Ed’s behavior. If she was lucky she could get him to eat two meals a day, if she didn’t tell him to eat then she noted he would lock himself away in the guest room and go the whole day without eating. She found herself worrying about him when he went without eating, he always looked so gaunt and sickly. She noted that he was determined he could force himself back into intelligence, he claimed that if he studied enough books, and if he locked himself away in his room long enough then his genius would return. This often would result in frustration, frustration that lead to wall stabbings, and Ed screaming like one of the countless lunatics locked away in Arkham. Lee would go into his room and find him hitting his head repeatedly against the wall, a small bloody wound forming on his forehead, teeth gritted as he muttered incoherently to himself. She would have Grundy pull him away and hold him while he thrashed and screamed, she noted he would throw fits for fifteen minutes or closer to an hour. He’d exhaust himself, body falling limp, the blood drying and coagulating, the wound closing. She would smile at Grundy, pat his arm, and tell him he could leave.

It caught her off guard when she was alone with Ed, he would wrap his arms around her waist and curl up against her side, face hidden against her neck as he quietly cried. He rarely spoke, just coughing and harsh sobs as he realized he wasn’t anybody he’d met before. Lee would wrap an arm around his waist and hold onto him, she’d kiss the top of his head and try to assure him that it would get better, but he couldn’t keep hurting himself like this.

It wasn’t until a month had gone by that she noticed another change within herself. Lee looked down at Ed, he was pressed against her side, head resting on her chest as he stared blankly at the TV. She found herself smiling as she looked down at him, her fingers petting through his soft unruly brown locks. She was scared to admit it, but she felt a sort of love for him. A love she didn’t think she could feel after all the heartache and Hell she had been through time and time again. She pressed a kiss against the top of his head, she was thankful he didn’t notice, or comment on the act of endearment. She felt it was a violation of trust if she confessed what she was starting to feel, she knew it was silly to feel that way, but she couldn’t help it, just like she couldn’t help feeling love for the fragile man. 

For now she was content to just hold him.


End file.
